Son of a working-class Quaker, radical pamphleteer and propagandist Thomas Paine was an Anglo-American intellectual, political theorist and activist. A community organizer of sorts, Paine provided a revolutionary voice for the common man—i.e., "Main Street" versus "Wall Street."

Notably, however, Paine's 1794 publication, The Age of Reason, venomously assaulted biblical Christianity. Paine argued, "the Christian mythologists, calling themselves the Christian Church, have erected their fable which for absurdity and extravagance, is not exceeded by anything that is to be found in the mythology of the ancients." [1]

Thomas Paine in the Lincoln White House

Having fully assimilated Paine's Age of Reason, young Abraham Lincoln came to be known as an "infidel." [2] Perhaps surprising to some, not until the end of his life did Lincoln reconcile his battle with God. At his first inauguration, President Obama was described as standing on the shoulders of Abraham Lincoln. According to Richard Allen Greene (CNN, Washington), it was Thomas Paine who "seems to have informed some of the spirit of President Obama's inaugural speech." Curiously, Obama had declared his candidacy on the very spot in Illinois where Lincoln launched his own first campaign and, then, took his oath of office on Lincoln's 1861 inaugural Bible. [3]

Thomas Paine in the Obama White House

Referencing Paine's "gathering clouds and raging storms," Obama acknowledged today's similarly troubling times. As is true today, the mid-1800s was marked by "a general dereliction of religious people and practices." Deistic or "infidel" literature published in America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries incorporated some form of determinism to account for order in the universe apart from the divine. [4]

Indeed, Paine was a self-proclaimed deist. Deism is known as the Clockwork Universe Theory—that God designed and built the universe, but then stepped aside to let it run on its own. "My own mind," Paine insisted, "is my own church." Frontier freethinkers, as Lincoln, made this very affirmation, thereby belying "inner duplicity" as revealed in the atheist's confession, "This is no God—and I hate him." [5]

In Obama's view, whatever we once were, we no longer consider ourselves a Christian nation. When it comes to policy, Obama declined to accept opposition from what he's characterized as "an obscure line in the book of Romans." In Obama's belief system, many paths lead to some higher power; and we are "connected as a people" in its pursuit. In his latest State of the Union address, Obama explained that "the way we're made" is to "look out for one another" ("usually without fanfare"). With each one doing his "fair share," choosing to believe in "the overwhelming judgment of science," and championing toughening gun legislation, common sense will, after all, prevail. [6]

Thomas Paine in Religion: My Country is the World; My Religion, to do Good

An ardent fan of Thomas Paine, President Obama openly espouses tenets of The Rights of Man,Common Sense, and The Age of Reason. Paine's core message was this: "My country is the world; my religion is to do good." Before reaching for the stars, one first must appeal to the collective reasoning of humanity, establish priorities, and thereby order one's home on earth (you know, as a community organizer might do). [7]

At his first inauguration, Obama referred to "the rights of man" (title of Paine's book that praised the French Revolution). Thereafter, in his recent State of the Union address, Obama credited the allegedly increasing strength of our union on human rights, common sense and reason. While referencing hardworking Americans' taking personal responsibility, despite gender and sexual orientation, Obama applauded the courage and skills of women. Ironically, at the same time he advocated for the Violence Against Women Act, he commended women in combat. [8]

Obama's first inauguration speech ended with a long quote from Paine's 1776 critical essay, "The Crisis," which famously begins, "These are the times that try men's souls." Such times purportedly suggest need for central, even global governance. In addressing the State of the Union, Obama explained how our union has met danger by becoming "the anchor of strong alliances" and by maintaining "the best military in the world." Collective efforts in creating global public-private partnerships and a "durable legal and policy framework to guide our counterterrorism operations" promise to "clear away the rubble of crisis." [9]

Thomas Paine and the Bible Belt

In June 1979, a well-dressed, articulate stranger visited the office of the Elberton Granite Finishing Company in Georgia in order to commission a huge granite monument alternately referred to as the Georgia Guidestones or the American Stonehenge.

On behalf of a group of men who wished to convey a message to humanity, this outsider (R. C. Christian) commissioned a peculiar monument (smack dab in America's Bible belt)—this, to recognize Thomas Paine and what experts identify as the occult philosophy he espoused. Paine, you see, was a Rosicrucian and served on the ultimate governing body (the Council of Three) of this highly secretive fraternity.

To understand the nature of dark forces behind such groups is to grasp the unfolding of world events in this 21st century. [10] The Rosicrucian "utopia" is global governance by a wise, benevolent elite much like Mikhail Gorbachev's Council of the Wise, consisting of one hundred innovative thinkers supposedly qualified to guide global interests. [11]

Written in Greek, Sanskrit, Egyptian, and Babylonian, the Stonehenge capstone inscription, "Let These be Guidestones to an Age Of Reason," reveals linkage to an occult hierarchy personified in Paine. To this very day, the Georgia Guidestones host occult ceremonies and mystic celebrations. [12]